You Want Irresponsible Steroid Speculation? You Got It

At this point, we all know that Raul Ibanez blew a gasket over a blogger's suggestion that we have to consider the possibility that performance-enhancing drugs were involved in his new-found power surge.

And we know that FOX Sports writer Ken Rosenthal threw his own two cents into the ring, taking Jerod Morris—the blogger in question—to task on ESPN's Outside the Lines.

We could spend all day on Rosenthal's argument: "All players today must face this kind of scrutiny because of all that has happened in the past. But when you get specific, when you start naming names, that's where I have a problem."

So we can be suspicious of everybody—we just can't be suspicious of anybody in particular.

Right on, Ken.

We could also go on at length about how the blog post that started all of the hubbub was in fact quite reasonable and measured.

The closest Morris came to accusing Ibanez of wrongdoing?

"Any aging hitter who puts up numbers this much better than his career averages is going to immediately generate suspicion that the numbers are not natural, that perhaps he is under the influence of some sort of performance enhancer."

The capper of the post?

"It will be a wonderful day when we can see a great start by a veteran like Ibanez and not immediately jump to speculating about whether steroids or PEDs are involved. We certainly are not at that point yet, however."

But judging from the reaction Morris invoked—"It's wrong, it's irresponsible, and it needs to stop," according to Rosenthal—reasonable and measured don't seem to play too well nowadays.

Instead, we're going to give Rosenthal a lesson in irresponsible speculation.

Raul Ibanez could be using steroids.

So could Joe Mauer.

And Miguel Tejada.

And David Aardsma.

And Bobby Abreu.

And Alfredo Aceves.

Catch my drift?

Derrek Lee could have used them.

And Albert Pujols.

And David Ortiz.

Barry Zito. Ben Zobrist. Joel Zumaya.

See what I'm saying?

Could be anybody. Could be everybody.

At this point, we've been duped by everyone from minor league pitchers to major league sluggers. We've been fooled by skinny relievers and brawny outfielders alike.

Jason Giambi looked like he was on steroids. He was.

Andy Pettitte didn't look like he was on steroids. He was.

Denials mean nothing. They're mandatory. A-Rod denied it. Rafael Palmeiro wagged his finger at Congress. Didn't matter—guilty and guilty.

It doesn't have to be a star. It doesn't have to be an outlier. Juan Rincon? J.C. Romero?

It's not fair to the random list of players I threw out here. It's not fair to Ibanez. I don't have evidence on any of them.

I'm not saying they used. I'm saying they could have. Anybody. Everybody. That's the lesson we took away from the last few decades.

Fair or otherwise, baseball has made it very, very difficult for us to believe that anyone is doing it the right way, even if most players are.

Testing doesn't make us feel better. Barry Bonds never failed a drug test. You can cheat 'em. You can beat 'em. This isn't a "pee in a cup, problem goes away" situation.

Ballplayers: You want to blame somebody for our skepticism? You want to lash out and call for accountability when we question you? Blame your peers. Lash out at the guys who did it. Find a way to hold them accountable.

Because they ruined it for us, and they ruined it for you. For years, we watched players make crazy jumps in power and performance, and went along for the ride without batting a critical eye.

We've already been suckers. We've already felt like idiots for cheering on hulked-out heroes. We've already been burned six ways from Sunday. We let you rip our hearts out once, and we don't intend on going through it again.

Irresponsible to ask? Irresponsible to wonder? At this point, it's crazy not to.

And—with apologies to Rosenthal—it's awfully difficult to do so without naming names.